Poems & Short Stories

There is always a tiger in the room – what did Sheeba do? (Did she remember her list? Or did she reach out to herself first?) Your kids, your keys, your family photo album. It’s the list your repeat in your head before you fall asleep. It’s the short list of things you grab in case of disaster. The list makes you feel in control. Your kids, your keys, your family photo album. When the fire starts, when the tsunami hits, when the Earth literally quakes, do you remember your list? Or do you just duck and cover? – Grey’s Anatomy   If you have watched Grey’s Anatomy, this quote will ring a bell. When I heard this quote in the episode for the first time, I was lost in thought, wondering how on earth can we could choose between the list and our personal safety. What do you care about most when you are in freeze, fight or flight mode? Do you remember the list that you have secretly rehearsed every night before you hit the sack or do you just hunt for a place of refuge to shelte...

  Manu Joseph’s The Illicit Happiness of Other People moved me to tears. Even now, my lips quiver at the mention of the book’s name, and my tear glands well up with a flood of tears. The end was too much to bear. This book is different from his earlier works like The Illicit Happiness of Other People and the iconic Serious Men . I was intrigued by this latest work of his, so without much thought, it became my February read. Why the Poor Don’t Kill Us is a piercingly intimate inquiry by Manu Joseph that highlights real-life instances where the middle class and the rich get away scot-free in their dealings with the poor. Joseph’s matter-of-fact writing doesn’t sound overtly critical, yet it makes you introspect about the things you take for granted. He examines the privileges that define the rich at the expense of the poor, or rather how the poor have resigned themselves to the treatment they are subjected to. It reveals how misery is normalized and how lamenting one’s miserable ...